OBJECTIVE
To study social demographic indicators and risk factors of severe COVID-19 course, diagnosed in doctor’s, nursing and paramedical staff, as well as in health care workers not related to medical activities.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The documentation of 83 medical and non-medical workers with a diagnosis of a novel coronovirus infection (COVID-19), who underwent the examination of correlation between disease and occupation in the center of occupational pathology on the basis of University Clinical Hospital No. 3 of the Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University).
RESULTS
The data on the gender, age and social demographic distribution of medical and non-medical workers were obtained based on the results of examination analysis. The comorbid diseases in the whole sample and in the patients of separate groups were analyzed. Medical workers met with a very high occupational risk of disease during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors of different occupational groups often experienced a severe disease course and an adverse outcome when they were infected by COVID-19. The infection of medical workers is related to departments’ overcrowding, long-term contact with patients, lack of isolation rooms (spaces, areas) and high virus concentrations in the workplace. A necessary condition of individual protective equipment (IPE) effectiveness to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection is the correct use of them, in particular, the choice of the optimal algorithm of IPE putting on and removing.
CONCLUSION
The obtained results indicate a high risk of medical staff infection in the workplace with severe COVID-19 development. It is necessary to take into account risk factors that are predisposed to the development of a severe form of the disease, when determining medical contraindications for health care workers to work with infectious agents of the second category of pathogenicity. There are no significant differences in the structure of comorbid pathology, depending on whether the disease is recognized as occupational or not, in the sample of examined patients. This means that there is a necessity to make appropriate changes in occupational health regulations.